I bought the Valve Jr head thinking it would be a great head for home practice but its way more. I have been bringing it to practice and to shows as a back up for any band member that might have amp problems. Last weekend our bass player had amp problems and he used this on top of his 2 15 bassman cab. It worked! Of course there was no huge pounding bass out of the cab but there was tone like crazy and it pushed the whole 4 sets worth. That in itself proves that this amp is worth your time and money if nothing more than a backup for your band. Its already paid for itself, grab one!

I bought this amp because i wanted something more portable than my 65 twin or my 100 watt head and 4 x 12 cab. I was very pleased with the sound and have had no problems or complaints. I replaced the tubes with jj's and Ruby's I don't like sovetek tubes or EH that is what was in it.The amp sounded great but a little to bright for my taste. I play Hot rodded Strats,tele's,les paul and a PRS singlecut all sound great. I think this the best value for the money it has the sound of amps costing several hundred dollars more. If anyone buys one and has a hum check the tubes as they can be sensitive and we know how things in music stores get banged around. My amp is dead quiet i use high quality cables too like George L's and Mogami.

I bought this amp a few years back. I actually like it a lot. I've since sold a line6 stack to buy a podXT(I need something smaller and more practical for me). However, I kept this head. I like it. But here's the deal with this amp. Unless you have a serious EQ pedal in front of it, you won't get a wide range of tones out of it. If you want a sort of warm, vintage, dirty blues sort of sound, this amp can do that pretty well. Crank it up or put an overdrive in front of it and it can handle many genres of rock. I know this because I traveled with a band for about 5 1/2 years, and for about three of those years, this amp was part of my main setup. Don't get this amp thinking that you can get eddie van halen out of it. You won't. It isn't made for that. You can, however, get a good, solid meat-and-potatoes tube tone out of it. Yes, it does it surprisingly loud. Not as loud as a marshall stack, no of course not. But if you either mic your amps live or only play in medium-small venues, this won't be a concern. People usually mic their amps anyway, so no big deal.

But here is a problem. I'm a lead guitarist. This amp isn't the best lead amp out there. It can still work, but you have to really play your cards right with it. The problem I most had with it is lack of clarity. This can be fixed with an EQ pedal, of course. Unfortunately, I don't make a lot of money...so I don't own one. But back to the subject at hand, this amp doesn't have a high threshold when you overdrive it. After about 50% with the little volume kbob, volume doesn't really go up much more, it is mainly just more overdrive after that. Don't get me wrong, the quality of tone is good. But if you are a lead player, your volume boosts won't be as gratifying when the whole band is playing and everything gets really loud. You will want more headroom to boost the volume than this amp will offer.

So, all in all, this is a great amp for the price, but you have to know what you're looking for with it. It is a great amp for recording or perhaps if your band is just a trio and you're the only guitarist(so that way you won't have such a profound need for more volume if you ever solo).

Solid amp, great price, just make sure you've done your homework before you buy it.

This is a review of the Epiphone Valve Jr. OK, let me explain my scores here. First of all I am a big vintage fender tube amp guy. I have been playing vintage fender amps pretty much exclusively for about 15 years. I gave features a 5, I know it only has one freaking knob but that's why I gave it a 5! As simple as it gets. The value...DUDE for what it is and the sound it packs it is cheap! Overall it is the loudest 5 watts I have ever heard, sure it is a little bassey but I am going to mod it anyway, that's the fun part about tube amps (IT WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY). I have been playing guitar for over 20 years and have had about every amp and guitar known to man. I played a modded tele, a japanese strat, an Epiphone Firebird and a 335 through this little amp and they all sounded great, it seems to respond a little better to single coils though. I ran a modded Boss SD-1 in front of the amp and BAM! It has that tone that is hard to find now a day's without dropping at least twice this much on something vintage. This little one knobber straight ROCKS for overdriven blues and southern rock.

I bought one of these because I wanted a stack sound in the studio that I could push into overdrive and get the effect of pushing alot of air as well as natural tube distortion. I already own alot of equipment, alot of vintage and boutique amps. Aside from 10 digital amps and some portable amps, I have an Ashdown Fallen angel full stack with the Fallen angel cabs, A Gibson 30 watt class A Super-Goldtone half stack with the Gibson 2X10-2X12 cabinet, A Mesa Bogie Studio .22, a 1955 Kay Model 703, a Supro Bantam. a 66 Fender Bandmaster with Vintage JBL J series speakers, a 68 Fender Showman with an original 2X15 Cabinet, a Blues Deville 4X12, an Epiphone Valve Jr. combo, and more. While all these amps are used extensively, the little halfstack is getting plenty of use with some minor modifications, I use 2 cabs, 1 I built and one stock. The first thing I did was to replace the tubes with Fender tubes. Then I got 2 12" Alnico Jensen speakers. I use a GNX 3 if I want effects except I have a 64 Fender tube reverb head and several pedals so tone is covered by a good external equalizer, and all he effects I need for anyone although I use them spareingly anyway. The point is I don't need a bunch of tone knobs and effects built in so it is not a big drawback that the amp doesn't have alot of features. The tube change was a major change in the tone, noise and in general was a huge improvement. The real change came with the speakers though, I used 1 8 Ohm and one 4 ohm 12" alnico Jensens and now the amp sounds amazing. It is also alot louder but has a unique sound, like a guitar solo recorded on this sounds like a live recording in an empty hall.